Author

Ashley Murray

Ashley Murray

Ashley Murray covers the nation’s capital as a senior reporter for States Newsroom. Her coverage areas include domestic policy and appropriations.

Two B-1B Lancers assigned to the 28th Operations Group, Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, take off for a Weapons School Integration mission at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada on May 30, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Wyatt Stabler)

Defense bill passes Senate with Thune & Rounds support, but deep divide with House looms

By: - July 28, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators avoided a heated partisan split as they passed the massive annual defense policy package late Thursday —  in stark contrast to the GOP-led House version, in which far-right members included language to restrict abortion access and transgender care for service members. Senators passed the National Defense Authorization Act, 86-11, but lawmakers […]

The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on National Security, the Border and Foreign Affairs held a hearing Wednesday, July 26, 2023, exploring reported sightings of unidentified anomalous phenomena. Witnesses being sworn in from left to right: retired U.S. Navy Cmdr. David Fravor, former Department of Defense National Reconnaissance Officer Representative of the Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena Task Force David Grusch and Ryan Graves, executive director of Americans for Safe Aerospace. (Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Is there evidence of extraterrestrial life? Congress tries to figure it out

By: - July 26, 2023

WASHINGTON — During an otherworldly hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday, lawmakers and witnesses launched accusations that the Pentagon is stonewalling Congress and the public from information about unidentified anomalous phenomena, more often referred to as UFOs. That includes a 2014 encounter when a “dark gray or black cube inside a clear sphere” traveled within 50 […]

Sen. Mike Rounds, R-South Dakota, speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on Sept. 28, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Patrick Semansky-Pool/Getty Images)

Senate approves Rounds amendment to block ag land purchases by adversaries

By: - July 25, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. senators approved bipartisan amendments to the annual defense policy bill Tuesday night that would prohibit China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from purchasing U.S. farmland and screen American investment in high-tech ventures on foreign adversary soil. By a 91-7 vote (including yes votes from both of South Dakota’s senators), the lawmakers approved […]

Protestors near the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., after a ruling by the court striking down the use of affirmative action in college acceptance decisions, on Thursday, June 29, 2023. (Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)

‘This is not a normal court,’ says Biden as GOP opponents praise affirmative action ruling

By: - June 29, 2023

WASHINGTON — Thursday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively scrambles the role affirmative action plays in the college admissions process cannot let the country slide “backwards,” President Joe Biden said just hours after the majority justices released their opinion. Meanwhile, Republicans seeking to challenge him in 2024 praised the decision. Issues of race and higher […]

View of the Black Hills from Black Elk Peak trail. (Makenzie Huber, South Dakota Searchlight)

Recreational rock climbing on federal lands would be regulated under bill in Congress

By: - June 27, 2023

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan bill that would establish standards for recreational rock climbing on federal lands is one step closer to becoming law. The Protecting America’s Rock Climbing Act was approved by the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources in late June, giving a boost to the millions of climbing advocates working to safeguard the […]

Workers lay fiber-optic cable at a broadband expansion site near Colton in May 2023. (Joshua Haiar/South Dakota Searchlight)

South Dakota to receive $207 million from new Biden broadband plan

By: - June 26, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Monday announced $42.45 billion to connect all Americans to high-speed broadband internet by the end of the decade, likening the ambitious goal to FDR’s New Deal-era rural electrification program that brought the then-modern technology to farms and rural areas across the United States. The funding includes about $207 million […]

A crowd gathered to photograph the bronze statue of author Willa Cather after a dedication ceremony in the U.S. Capitol Statuary Hall on June 7, 2023. The Cather statue is Nebraska's second added to the National Statuary Hall Collection. (Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Statue of renowned Nebraska author Willa Cather unveiled in U.S. Capitol

By: - June 7, 2023

WASHINGTON — Pulitzer Prize-winning author Willa Cather, who brought to life the Great Plains of Nebraska, is now honored with a statue in the U.S. Capitol, becoming the 12th woman represented in the National Statuary Hall Collection. U.S. and Nebraska lawmakers on Wednesday unveiled the bronze figure of the woman who wrote the widely acclaimed […]

A sign noting the acceptance of electronic benefit transfer (EBT) cards that are used by state welfare departments to issue benefits is displayed at a grocery store in 2019 in Oakland, California. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

New work requirements for some SNAP recipients included in debt limit deal

By: - May 30, 2023

WASHINGTON — The holiday weekend debt ceiling deal struck by President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy preserves in part new work requirements for some food stamp recipients but now with exceptions for certain populations, including veterans. The agreement released late Saturday night showed concessions from both sides — from GOP members, who wanted […]

Deb and Ray Cullen, of Shippensburg, Pa., center and right, show a photo of their son, Zachary, in the office of their congressman, GOP Rep. John Joyce, left. Zachary died nine months ago at 23 of a drug overdose involving cocaine laced with illicit fentanyl. The Cullens traveled to the U.S. Capitol on May 25, 2023, to watch the House vote on the HALT Fentanyl Act. (Ashley Murray/States Newsroom)

Fentanyl-related drugs permanently made criminal under bill passed by U.S. House

By: - May 25, 2023

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in the U.S. House passed bipartisan legislation Thursday in an effort to curb staggering overdose deaths from illegal fentanyl substances that are illicitly produced and up to 50 times stronger than heroin. The HALT Fentanyl Act, passed on a 289-133 vote with 74 Democratic votes and support from the Biden administration, would […]

President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference following the Group of Seven (G-7) leaders summit on May 21, 2023, in Hiroshima, Japan. (Kiyoshi Ota-Pool/Getty Images)

Progressives try to persuade Biden to use the 14th Amendment to resolve debt crisis 

By: - May 23, 2023

WASHINGTON — Progressives are pushing hard for President Joe Biden to take the unprecedented step of invoking the 14th Amendment as a way to avoid financial calamity if the White House and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy do not strike a deal on the debt ceiling in the coming days. The lawmakers and legal scholars argue […]

The exterior of the White House is seen from outside the security fencing on March 7, 2021, in Washington, D.C. (Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images)

A default on the U.S. debt would be far worse than a government shutdown. Here’s how.

By: , , and - May 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — A U.S. default on its debt would have a significantly broader impact on federal operations, financial markets and the global economy than recent government shutdowns that have left ordinary Americans largely untouched. While the two have been confused frequently during debate over the debt limit, the federal government has had considerable practice with […]

President Joe Biden speaks in the South Court Auditorium at the White House complex Feb. 16, 2023, in Washington, D.C. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Biden vows debt ceiling talks will continue while he’s overseas at G7 summit

By: - May 17, 2023

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will remain in “constant contact” with debt ceiling negotiators and promised to update the nation Sunday upon his return from a shortened trip to Asia for the G7 economic summit. Biden delivered brief remarks Wednesday before departing on a scheduled trip to Japan that will no longer include stops in […]